1. Saute onions in large non-stick skillet in a teeny bit of olive oil over medium low heat for about 5 minutes. Add garlic, saute 5-7 minutes more, or until onions are starting to look a little caramelized. Add spinach and cook until just wilted. Transfer mixture to 8x8 pan. Cover with crumbled feta cheese.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat egg and add milk, flour, salt and dill if desired. Pour this mixture over spinach/cheese.

06 December 2008

*by the way, this is gluten free, and one of my favorites. I kind of make it a lot - I'm so surprised it's not already on this blog that I actually just went and double-checked and wouldyabelieve, nope, it's not. So here you go!

2)While polenta is baking, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat (no need to get your mis-en-place beforehand, just chop as you go). Add to skillet in this order:

2 Tbsp. olive oil2 cups frozen corn kernals, defrosted (I like the roasted kind from TJ's) or a can of corn, drained4 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped1 green chile pepper or 2 jalapenos (how do you do an N with a ~ on a laptop??), seeded and chopped. Saute about 3 minutes.

SO --> that is how you do the vegetarian version. To add carne asada, I think I just got a package of it from TJ's, not sure of the size, and sauteed it until brown in another skillet or maybe in the same skillet before I did the olive oil/corn/garlic/chile part, then set it aside and stirred it back in when I stirred in the tomatoes/salsa.

Have fun and let me know how it turns out if you try it!By the way, this is a good one to bring to church potlucks. :)

18 November 2008

I am guessing Justin likes this dish because it is not one, not two, but Three kinds of meat. If you are wondering what beef chips are, I have no idea and neither does Moi. Ha! But this sounds DE-licious!

Cut the breasts in half and wrap them in bacon. Rinse chipped beefto remove some of the salt. Place 1/2 of the chipped beef in bottomof 9x13 inch baking pan. Lay chicken breast halves on top. Layerrest of chipped beef over chicken. Blend sour cream and soup andpour over layers. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover with foil. Bake at275 degrees for 3 hours or at 350 for 1 hour. It's best when slow-cooked,but can be baked in 1 hour. You can also put it together ahead of timeand store in refrigerator until baking.

29 September 2008

I find myself with an abundance of apples of all different varieties. Of course, this forces one to get creative in finding uses for them all! Here is a recipe that absolutely must be shared with the world... it is amazing. This is the small recipe which Ken and I can easily polish off by ourselves. You can also triple this and bake it in a 9x13.

3. Melt butter in 8x8x2 baking dish in oven. Add apple slices to butter and return to oven until you hear sizzling (do not brown apples). Remove from oven and pour batter over apples. Sprinkle with brown sugar (optional). Bake in middle of oven 20 minutes until puffy and brown.

All you need to serve this with is a tiny drizzle of real maple syrup. It's sooooooo good.

09 July 2008

I promised a report on how it works to do "Once A Month Cooking" when you're 9 months pregnant. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it. Even if you're seriously nesting, it is exhausting. I had to sit down while kneading dough and other stupid stuff like that. So, probably won't do it again... at least not while I'm in that state.

We're in Ohio now, staying at a fabulous farm, waiting to move into our new digs (our house is almost ready). I'm looking forward to throwing an open house style party with all the best appetizers and... some punch. I have never made punch before. Not sure why... probably because I don't have a punch bowl. But I am going to go out and buy one because it just sounds so fun. I was actually inspired by Mom at a party she threw while we were up there last month. In her typical style she said, "Oh yeah, it's easy to just whip* some up. You just throw* some cranberry juice in and then toss* some ginger ale in, and, voilá."

* Please note the violent character of all these verbs.

ANYWAY - if anybody has a good punch recipe or idea, please pass it on. Not that anybody reads my blog anymore, and not that I blame them, since I haven't posted since baby.

21 March 2008

Now that I am a housewife, I'm going to try "once a month cooking" ... to stock up for when the baby comes. Instead of cooking for a whole month, I'm going to make 14 meals, and see how long that lasts us. They're nothing too exciting, just a bunch of chicken dishes and soups, but hopefully they will sound good to tired parents and mean that we (I) don't have to cook.

If it works well, I'll describe the whole process in detail right here. Stay tuned. :)

1. Heat 2 T. oil in a large skillet (*note: an electric skillet or griddle works best so the sukiyaki can cook right on the table). Sizzle about one-third or half the beef in the oil. Sprinkle with 1 T. brown sugar. Add a splash each of soy sauce and sake. When the meat is brown, remove from the skillet (leave the juice/sauce in the skillet).

2. Place some of the chopped cabbage in the skillet. Cook 2-3 minutes or until slightly wilted. Gather the cabbage to one side of the skillet and add some green onion, tofu, mushrooms. Place the cooked beef on top of the cooking vegetables.

3. Add some spinach last and cook until barely wilted (30 seconds?). Provide empty bowls and a couple large spoons to let folks get what they want out of the skillet. Serve alongside bowls of hot cooked rice.

4. When you are ready for seconds, add more raw beef and give it a minute to cook before adding remaining veggies. When you add more beef you can also add more "sauce" (brown sugar, soy sauce and sake) if you want.

18 February 2008

All I did was peel and core a Granny Smith apple, slice it thinly (1/4"), place on top of waxed paper on a cookie sheet in a single layer, and bake at 200 for 2 or 3 hours, stirring every hour or so (just lift them off the wax paper so they don't stick)

What came out was some apples like dried apples, and some more like apple chips. Both tasted amazing. Totally awesome snack!

This weekend I had an awesome combination of ingredients hanging about in my fridge, so I adapted this old favorite into a spinach and mushroom variation. This was yummy for dinner but even better for breakfast the next day:

2. In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onions 5-10 minutes or until golden. Add garlic and mushrooms; saute 2-5 minutes more. Add spinach and saute until wilted. Place onion mixture on top of bread pieces; spread out if necessary. Sprinkle cheese evenly over top.

3. In a large-ish bowl, beat eggs. Add broth or water, black pepper and salt if using; stir to combine. Pour egg mixture slowly over top, pressing with the back of a spoon to moisten bread so egg mixture will soak in.

4. Bake 35-45 minutes at 350. Test for doneness with a knife. It will be big and puffy but will deflate after a few minutes.

15 February 2008

We got our Valentine's Day Dinner recipe from an awesome food blog, which Christa kindly pointed out to me a couple weeks ago. The salmon was expensive, but amazing. I am about to go eat the leftovers for lunch.

08 February 2008

Maybe you didn't know this, but Dayton, Ohio, is actually exceedingly cool. I cannot wait to live there, for the following reasons:

1. They have seasons... for real... probably complete with beautiful fall colors.2. They have the Eckardts3. They have tornadoes (oh wait that's not cool)4. It is probably weird in a cool way, like Chattanooga5. It's only a 7 hour drive from Chattanooga.. read: frequent visits to Sus and Marie!6. No matter how weird it is, it's where little Baby Mo will spend the first year of her life, so the memories are guaranteed to be sweet!7. I will have my own refrigerator again! (It is yet to be decided if that small perk is worth giving up the fabulous ambiance of the avocado house along with one housemate who acts on every whim to bake something amazing and then share, and the other one who does my dishes all the time... and did I mention they both have fabulously loud laughs)8. We will get to be real Americans for the first time ever. Living on the west coast you don't really feel like one, and living in Chattanooga you just feel like a $%&* Yankee, but I bet people in Ohio are real Americans. Like the kind that fly flags outside their homes.9. I just cannot wait to check out Carillon Park. What the heck is a Carillon, anyway?10. It is a wicked-cheap place to live!

We are hoping to get some sort of a three-bedroom place. This means that you're welcome to visit :)

2. In a blender, mix soy sauce, wine, ginger, garlic and green onions until blended well. Brush fish with sauce and place remaining sauce in saucepan. Broil fish 6-9 minutes or until it flakes easily with a fork and the veggies are roasted.